


Next Year

by vamplamp



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Civilian Jason Todd, Gangs, Organized Crime, Secret Identity, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-08-23 17:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20246395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vamplamp/pseuds/vamplamp
Summary: Jason was never adopted by Bruce Wayne, but he still ends up going undercover within the False Face society for him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Going to edit tags as I go, so there will definitely be more popping up in characters and probably additional.

**1**

Jason pulled a cigarette from his pocket as he heard the soft thud from the roof behind him, he checked his coat pockets for his lighter and sighed, “Got a light?”

“How you holding up?”

He glanced to the side. Red Robin had changed his suit up a little, the red that had previously only covered his chest now stretched in lines down to his fingertips. It was nice but didn't exactly make him more covert.

“I got promoted. Nothing much but instead of being in the warehouses I’m down at the docks helping to load and unload the goods.”

The wind was biting tonight, his hands shook a little as he reached his cigarette across the distance between them.

“I don’t smoke.”

Not for the first time Jason wondered just how Red Robin wasn’t freezing his ass off in that suit of his. Maybe it had a built in heater or something, from some of the tech that he’d heard of the Bat’s producing he wouldn’t exactly put it past them.

“Yeah but I wouldn’t be surprised if you carried one in that belt of yours. I still haven’t laid eyes on the boss yet, though I feel like I’m pretty close to getting access to the import/export books. Where’s Nightwing?”

Jason didn’t miss the way the kid stiffened beside him, even if he covered up the motion best he could by retrieving a lighter from his belt, it was one of the few things he hadn’t figured out how to hide completely since his Robin days.

“Out of town. We don’t know when he’ll be back.”

Didn’t take a genius to figure out there was more to that story, especially since he could count the amount of meet-ups Wing had missed on one hand, though now Jason hadn’t caught wind of the guy in almost a month. Wasn’t worth pushing it though, not like RR would actually tell him anything. He lit up instead, appreciating the small bit of warmth instead. Sometimes it irked him that he still wasn’t trusted despite having known the Bats for years, but he didn’t blame the kid, no doubt his hands were tied when it came to this sort of thing.

Red Robin shifted to sit on the edge of the rooftop, feet dangling and swinging a little like he was completely oblivious to the drop below him.

“You want to grab a bite?”

“No, I can’t risk getting seen with you.”

“I know a good place right on the edge of the city.”

“Sorry, but I really need to be getting home. There’s a shipment going out at 6 and I want to get some rest before I have to head down there, won’t do to be late.”

Before Jason reached the door leading to the stairwell, Red Robin put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. The kid had grown a hell of a lot since his Robin days but so had Jason, so he still had to reach up to grab him.

“You’d tell us if you wanted to be pulled out right?”

Jason heard himself sigh, “Yeah of course, most of the guys I’m working with right now just want to feed their families,” he cracked a smile, “as long as I don’t drop the goods all over the floor, I think I can handle loading up some boats.”

Red Robin didn’t smile back but he nodded slightly as though trying to reassure himself, “Alright. Just stay safe Jason.”

Jason stayed up on the roof to watch as the kid threw himself off the side of the building and grappled away, before stamping out the remains of his cigarette and heading inside.

  
  


* * *

  
  


When Red Robin had brought up the idea that it might be helpful if he accepted the offer extended to him by that guy at the bar to go and work for Black Mask, that it would pay far better than wiping tables and washing pots in some Gotham shithole, he’d laughed in his face. 

Then he’d realised that the kid was serious and he’d considered the idea that it might be a little exciting. The thing was though Jason wasn’t the type to go chasing after thrills, sure given the opportunity back when he was just a scrawny snot-nosed kid he would’ve jumped at the danger like a shot, but a long time ago Jason had figured that staying alive was a priority best worth keeping. 

Jason had been hearing stories from Red Robin (then Robin) and Nightwing since the pair had first saved him from getting mugged at 15 and the two of them had gone and eaten burgers with him. Then it happened over and over, by complete chance. Until the night, when he was 17, that a bleeding Nightwing had decided he knew him well enough to just drop into the apartment he was squatting in whilst the owner was in lockup for the month, for a quick nap rather than swinging all the way back to wherever it was the bats went to during the day.

He’d been hearing about them doing all that good whilst Jason had been giving every single note of money they left for him to someone he decided needed it more and focused on getting himself that shitty job at the bar so he could finally afford to pay the rent for his own apartment.

Although common sense told him gathering intel on the False Facers for Batman was a suicide mission there was also that small voice that told him that it could actually end up with Black Mask behind bars. So he’d agreed under the intent to try and actually make a difference to the people of Gotham.

Mostly though, Jason’s days were just boring. Like he’d told Red, he hadn’t even set eyes on Black Mask himself yet. All his job consisted off was, originally, standing in a warehouse boxing up various cosmetic products, though he was pretty sure they were sending out more than just make-up, into trucks emblazoned with the Janus Cosmetics logo. Before he got promoted to loading those boxes from the trucks and onto the boats at the docks. He never actually saw any money change hands but there was always the presence of non-False Facers on the boats they were loading so he was pretty sure there was some sort of buying and selling going on.

The only thing that actually made it so Jason knew it was a promotion at all was that he was now required to wear a mask when loading up, probably because outsiders were involved and they had to keep up the good face of the gang or whatever. Jason had been thrown a musty red mask that only covered the top half of his head but had a long bird beak sticking out over his nose.

It kinda stinks, but at least it meant no one could see his face to identify him elsewhere. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Two weeks went on like this, they weren’t bothered by the Bats neither since everything being done was technically under legal licenses. The police no doubt paid off to never search anything going in or out, either that or they were shit scared of going anywhere near the docks and honestly Jason didn’t blame them.

Then the pattern broke.

He’d met up with Red Robin an hour or so before his shift, still no sign of Nightwing, and had nothing to report. When he reached the docks, he’d only been working for a few minutes when a black van pulled up and a group of False Facers got out, the kind that worked out of the main building under direct orders from Mask.

Not pausing in his work, Jason watched out the corner of his eye as a couple of the men grabbed a large sack from the trunk of the car and across to the water’s edge and chucked it over the side. It dropped like it was full of bricks.

The other two men made their way over to where the ones who over saw everything at the docks were standing and spoke to them in low voices, once again Jason cursed the masks covering all of their faces as he couldn’t even read facial expressions.

“Hey Red, get your ass over here.” It was the guy in charge of the docks who always sported a black fox mask.

It took Jason a second to realise the guy must be referring to him, or his mask at least.

He stayed silent as he approached the group.

“You know how to use a gun?” One of the men from the car.

“Yeah.” You didn’t grow up on the streets of Crime Alley without teaching yourself a few tricks, he’d never actually used on before but he’d watched people fire them enough that he was pretty sure he could fake it.

“It’s only a baby.”

Jason snarled at that, “I’m 19.”

The other man from the car chuckled at that, “alright kid, you got bite. You’re coming with us.”

Jason frowned but followed anyway when fox mask jerked his head in their direction as though to tell him to get on with it.

Sliding into the back of the van, sitting opposite the same guys he’d just been talking to, Jason followed their lead when they took off their masks.

One of them was much younger than he imagined, mid twenties maybe with his hair cropped close to his head, he smirked in a way that made Jason want to squirm in his seat, “The boss is definitely going to like you.” 

Jason didn’t want to even try and unpack what that meant to he focused on the other man instead, he looked older and had grey peppering his temples. Jason spent a moment wondering just how this guy had managed to survive for so long without getting himself shot before he was being handed a suit out of a bag.

“Get changed.”

“Wha-?”

“Don’t have time for you to get picky kid, put it on or we drop you back at the docks and take someone else.”

Normally that probably would’ve been a pretty good option but Jason’s entire purpose here was to try and actually get something on Black Mask and something told him if he said no now then he’d never get further up the ladder than the fucking docks. So he shrugged out of his Jacket and started undoing the buttons on his shirt.

Getting changed in the back of a van, shared with three other men, whilst it was being driven was pretty difficult but eventually Jason managed it. The suit was simple black with a white shirt, matching the rest of the group. It was a little wide on the shoulders but Jason wasn’t exactly going to complain about that to them.

When he had sat back down again, suit jacket on the seat beside him, the older guy handed him a leather shoulder holster from the same duffel that the suit had come from, then came a handgun. He made a show of taking out the clip and slotting it into place before spinning it to offer Jason the grip first.

He tucked it away. Put the jacket on over it.

“You don’t fucking touch that unless someone tells you too.”

Jason nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Tonight kid, you don’t do anything that you aren’t fucking told to. You stand there, you shut your mouth and you do what your fucking told. You manage that and who knows maybe you get to come back tomorrow and do it again. Maybe you get yourself a pay rise. Or maybe you get shot in the head and thrown in the river like Charlie back there.”

“Yes sir,” Jason was proud of the way his voice didn’t waver in the slightest as he held the man’s gaze.

The guy nodded sharply, eyeing him for a long moment before the van drew to a stop and they all reached back down to replace their masks, Jason was immediately self conscious of the way his red mask clearly stood out against the black of the rest of theirs. 

The weight of the gun felt heavy against Jason’s chest as he followed the other’s lead and exited the van, the mask protecting his face and the top of his head from the drizzling rain. They were out the back of what Jason recognised as the main building of The Janus Corporation. Shit this really was moving fast.

As a group they entered through a side door and then an elevator that took them up into a building. As they rode up Jason couldn’t help but smirk to himself, because of course the first time he would find himself inside a building this fancy was in a situation that was just as likely to get him killed as have him walk out alive. This entire thing was insane, he never should have said yes to the job. The bar had been crappily paid but at least it wasn’t this. 

Deep breath. Just do what they tell you to do and nothing else. They got no reason to suspect you of anything.

The elevator came to a stop and Jason followed the men out into a corridor, through a maze of hallways until they reached a glass walled office with windows all along the back wall. 

The men fanned out around the room, two of them stayed just outside the door, and came to a standstill with their backs to the walls. Jason was directed to a gap in the group that was directly to the left of the large desk that filled up most of the space. He was just next to a table filled with bottles of drink that Jason wouldn’t be surprised to hear were worth more than his entire apartment. 

As he stood there, waiting for something to happen, Jason had a weird thought that this was probably what it was like to be a piece of furniture. He doubted the purpose of this group was to do much of anything aside from look threatening. 

The main elevator, that was at the end of the hallway opposite the office, opened up with a ding. Jason stayed where he was, hands clasped in front of him.

Black Mask strode into the room, two others following close behind. One of them was obviously a bodyguard, suited and masked like the rest of them, but the other stood out as the only one in the room without a mask. 

The woman was in a suit and had her long black hair tied behind her head. She was talking.

“So I would recommend you push for 70% and then settle for nothing less than 40. The two of you are roughly equal with territory at the moment so it will make sense to him to agree to peace now, even if he loses some of his profits in order to use the main docks. You’re the one who has been taking land from him so with any luck he’ll be eager to agree before he loses everything.”

Black Mask sat down in the large leather chair behind his desk drummed his fingers on the top for a moment before getting up and moving to the window instead.

“This is Carmine Falcone we’re talking about, luck isn’t going to have anything to do with it.”

Jason stood their, trying his best to blend into the shadows because he had no idea what he’d done to join the Black Mask’s personal guard, because there was no doubt anymore that that is exactly what this is. Maybe they figured that because all they’d dug up on him was that he was young and from the Alley that he’d have nobody to run too if he did get out of his depth. Or maybe they figured there would be no real loss to them if Mask decided he wanted to shoot someone and chose the new kid. 

This is what you wanted isn’t it? The voice in his head was ever persistent but it wasn’t wrong. He’d practically been handed the position of fly on the wall. That was if he didn’t get himself killed like whoever he was replacing first.

Black Mask was looking at him, his hands pushed into the pocket of his clean white pinstripe suit. Blood stains would be a nightmare to wash out of that, was all Jason could think as Black Mask looked at him through that mask. Even though he knew that Mask couldn’t actually see his eyes due to the lenses that covered them he still felt as though the man knew that he was looking back. 

But before anything could happen, the elevator opened again and Mask was looking away and towards Carmine Falcone and the men on his shoulder as he entered the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the chapter!

**2**

“Whisky.”

Jason’s muscles felt stiff from standing for so long but when Black Mask clicked his fingers at you, you didn’t hesitate. Falcone had just left, him and Roman had sat and figured out the fine print of this so called Peace Treaty, not that Jason himself really believed that it would last. The war would end, boundaries set in stone, Falcone would be able to export via the main docks but the False Facers would get a 45% cut of whatever went through their territory in return. 

Carmine had looked like he was going to just going to throw it all to hell and shoot Mask in the head but he didn’t and even went so far as to shake hands before he left. That was when things really started to get interesting.

Jason poured the drink and set it in Mask’s gloved hand, thankful that he’d seen so many drinks made at the bar, even if two fingers of straight whisky wasn’t exactly the world’s most complicated order.

“Sit.”

Jason moved around the desk and sat down in the chair that Falcone had just vacated, he decided that his mind must be playing tricks on him when it told him the seat was still warm.

“Take the mask off.” It felt strange to be the only person in the room without a mask, Jason’s skin tingled as he placed it on the desk in front of him. He wasn’t sure if that was the right move but it felt better to have both of his hands free. 

“What’s your name?”

“Jason Todd.”

The idea of this whole operation was meant to be that he wouldn’t get caught out because there was no secret identity to hide. It was only by Jason’s own refusal that he hadn’t gotten mixed up in a gang before now, so it was entirely believable that someone like him would get caught up with the False Facers.

“Where you from Jason?”

“Gotham.”

Mask took a sip of his drink. Jason’s throat felt dry.

“Where in Gotham?”

“Park Row.”

Mask chuckled darkly at that, “A Crime Alley kid eh? What about your parents?”

“Dead.” Jason was careful not to let any emotion slip into his voice.

“You like making money Jason?”

He let himself smirk a little, slipping seamlessly into the skin of the man he could’ve been, “Who doesn’t?”

Mask threw back the rest of his drink and placed the tumbler on the desk with a clink. He slowly reached into his jacket and came back with a gun that he smoothly levelled at Jason’s chest.

“Say you piss me off Jason, but you’ve spent a lot of time in this office and know way too much about the dealings that go on in here that there’s no way I can just let you walk about and tell whoever. Say you find yourself back in this chair or up to your knees in blood in some alley while I aim a gun at your head. Would you still like the money then?”

Jason didn’t know what the right answer to a question like that was so he didn’t say anything, didn’t let his gaze waver from the man across the desk. Doing his best to ignore the black of the gun barrel and the deathly silence filling the room.

Eventually, he passed whatever kind of test that was and Mask put the gun down in front of him. He wrapped a hand around the empty tumbler and slid it across the table so Jason had to catch it before it fell to the floor.

“Have a drink.”

The glass felt warmer in Jason’s grip than it had when he’d given it to Mask, “I shouldn’t.”

“I insist.”

Deciding that denying again would be the wrong decision, Jason climbed to his feet and walked across the study back to the bottles. The other men in the room were all hidden behind their masks but Jason knew inexplicably that they were all watching him. A part of him wondered just how many men they’d had to throw off the docks after one night of working alongside them.

He contemplated what to have but ended up deeming it safest to pour himself the same stuff he’d given Mask but before he’d even got a hand around the bottle he was being swung around and slammed backwards against the wall. The gun up once again, but this time the muzzle was pushed right up against his skull, another hand wrapped threateningly around his throat.

Jason instinctively swung up a hand the grip Mask’s wrist just above the cuff of his suit jacket, though he didn’t try and pull it away. His pulse thrummed against Mask’s gloved hand but he could breathe well enough. 

This is a test. He’s just testing you. Seeing if you’ll hold your nerve. The voice in the back of his head was as persistent as ever.

“Are you a whore Jason?”

Jason kept his face carefully emotionless at that comment. Didn’t let the thoughts of how he despised that word break through onto his face, how it had sometimes been the girls and boys of street corners that had saved his life countless times back when he’d had no home and they’d thrown him a little part of the money they’d made for themselves to the kid with nowhere left to go.

He thought about the rumours from a few years ago that the Black Mask had been the one to murder one of the young Bats, about how he hadn’t seen Red Robin for months after and when he had the kid had looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. He forcefully pushed down the urge to spit on Mask’s expensive shoes and possibly set the entire building on fire.

“Because you’re in the wrong place if you are.”

They stayed like that for a long moment. Black Mask scanning his face for something, what Jason didn’t know, but he refused to so much as twitch. The gun eventually got put away and Mask walked out, the bodyguard who had come into the room with him followed him to the elevator, where he pushed the up button to summon it.

Jason stayed leant against the wall, moderately worried that if he were to move away then his legs would just give out under him. One of the men picked his mask up off the desk and threw it at him, he caught it as it thumped against his chest.

“You did good kid.”

It was the same guy from earlier, Jason wasn’t so sure he was right.

* * *

  
  


Robin was smaller than he expected. Jason was standing on a rooftop across from him and Red Robin, explaining to him what he knew about Janus Cosmetics and all the voice in the back of his head was commenting on, was that Robin was smaller than he expected. 

From the rumours that he’d heard about the kid he expected him to at least reach his ribs.

He’d never met him despite having known both Red Robin and Nightwing for years but Robin had swung down the moment Jason had disclosed to RR that he was now working out of the main building, for Black Mask himself.

The Bats were currently asking him if he could wear what was basically a wire even if they seemed to believe that their tech was far too discreet to be described that.

“I can’t. Every time I go in the front, which is as much as I go in the back, we have to go through the metal detectors. I’ve only been there a week, so if I put anything that isn’t my gun and phone in that tray I’m getting dragged off to some quiet room for you know what.”

“We need recorded evidence.”

Jason pulled his jacket around himself tighter, could Gotham not be freezing  _ and  _ windy for once, he’d really appreciate it.

“I get that and I’ll get you something, but you have no idea how paranoid these guys are. I need them to trust me with the physical stuff first before I can even think about getting something out. Right now it's all picking up protection money and standing in Masks office during meetings.”

He hadn’t even fired his gun yet, not that he was looking forward to that part of the job. He was effectively being treated with kid gloves, taken around and shown the inner workings of the position, basically just be muscle when muscle is needed. Black Mask, or Mr Sionis as the other men referred to him, hadn’t given Jason so much as a glance since that first night.

Though a mask that matched the others never appeared so Jason had just had to get used to the idea that he was always going to stand out, as well as being continuously called either ‘kid’ or when in the company of others, ‘Red’. Neither of which he particularly appreciated.

“Have you actually found out anything of use?”

Jason had to admit, Robin was kind of a brat.

“Look kid, the guys I’m working with now they aren’t the loose lipped kind. This is gonna take time, patience.” Jason refused to be rushed into something, trying for too much too soon was only going to get him killed.

“We don’t have tim-”

“Robin!” RR put his arm out across the front of the kid as he took a step forward as though he was about to advance towards Jason, “Take a breath.”

Robin looked more than a little angry but before he got a chance to respond both boys shifted their heads as though responding to a sound that Jason couldn’t hear. 

“No we aren’t finished here yet but I can cover this on my own. Robin can-”

“Red Robin is doing an inadeq-,” he paused, listened, “Yes Father, I’m two minutes away.”

Without even looking in Jason’s direction, Robin grappled off the edge of the roof, swinging towards the Upper East Side.

“Sorry about him,” Red Robin was also looking out in the way that Robin had disappeared. “He’s not normally this bad, we’ve just all been on edge lately, what with-” He cut himself off and rubbed a hand across his brow, “never mind let’s just get back on topic.” 

Jason considered pushing but decided to leave it and went back to describing blue prints, what warehouses Mask was actually operating out of and which were the ones used as the Janus Cosmetic’s front. Even though he had known Red Robin for such a long time, he couldn’t help but wonder if the other boy even considered them to be friends at all.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


“You know, you say everything’s been running fine Tony, but would we really be here if everything was fine? Think before you answer this time.”

Jason felt more than a little disgusted by the snivelling man on the floor in front of them. The guy who had first spoken to Jason from the group, Shane, was crouched down with his gun pressed under his chin. Jason was pretty sure that he was sneering under the mask.

“Maybe I can jog your memory a little.” Shane re-angled the gun, and pulled the trigger. 

Tony immediately started clutching at his foot, howling in pain.

See Jason didn’t feel all that remorseful right now for two reasons. The first being that he remembered being chased from the area by Tony’s men back when he’d first found himself on the streets, he’d refused to become one of their runners, who more often than not grow up to be addicts themselves, and gotten a twisted knee for his trouble.

The second was in the shape of a twelve year old boy that was leaning on the wall for support somewhere behind Jason’s back. The kid had a black eye and busted lip, courtesy of Tony himself, but he’d gotten away and run all the way across to get himself in front of Sionis’ desk. Apparently Tony here had been skimming for years, diluting the product to sell some for his own private profit etc etc. The kid had seen him at it and Tony had tried to shut him up. So far that wasn’t going too well for him.

Jason remembered being that kid. Chances are he was hungry enough that he would’ve agreed to keep quiet if Tony had just offered him a cut. So no Jason didn’t feel too bad as he watched Shane torment the fucker a little.

“Fine fine, I was mixing a bit but it never made a difference to your money, I swear, I swear.”

Shane let off for a moment, dropping back and sliding his knuckle dusters back into his pocket. He let Tony flop to the floor at his feet.

“Good, that’s all we wanted to hear. Early confessions make this whole thing so much cleaner. I’ve never been one for mess.”

He leveled his gun right at Tony’s forehead before hesitating and beckoning Jason over instead, “How about it Red, you want this one?”

The sweat on Jason’s back ran cold, he had known it was bound to happen eventually, but this, an unarmed man snivelling at the floor, somehow felt heavier than what he’d pictured. His body moved as if on autopilot to stand next to Shane, the other man’s fingers wrapping around his wrist to help to keep his hand steady. 

Jason took a deep breath in and let it out, slowly. He could see Tony’s mouth moving but couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying over the rushing in his ears, which was probably a good thing. The voice in the back of his head helpfully informed him that Tony was most likely begging.

He knew that if he didn’t shoot this man, following orders, then Black Mask wouldn’t have any use for him in a job of this clearance. 3, 2, Jason mentally counted down, on 1 he was just going to pull the trigger, 1.

The recoil was stronger than Jason expected, his shoulder jerked back forcefully at the same time that he felt the spray hitting his legs. The silencer on the end of the gun wasn’t strong enough to stop his ears from ringing loudly. Lowering the weapon, Jason took one look at the body on the floor before turning and vomiting painfully next to his own feet.

It took a moment to come back to himself, the sound of Shane cackling as he hit him on the back was the first thing to actually register, “Don’t worry about it kid, happens to the best of us.”

The rest was a blur. Bagging everything up. Cleaning the scene with chemicals. Making sure to wipe everything down. The drive to the docks. Dragging the body and throwing it away by the light of the moon. That part was all routine, he’d done it a couple of times now. But he hadn’t- he hadn’t- Even the voice in the back of his head was having trouble thinking it. 

When Jason finally got back to his tiny apartment in the Narrows his hands were shaking as he grabbed a beer from the fridge and dropped onto the sofa. He spent the rest of the night staring absently at the pages of the last book he’d taken out of the library, the words swimming about on the page until they blurred so much he didn’t have a choice but to wipe his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments inspire and sustain me

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you have any thoughts at all, I'm always open to new ideas and constructive criticism!


End file.
